This was a rather disappointing map. It shows off quite a few ideas, but fails to expand upon any of them. This, along with a couple of nick picks I may add, make this a pretty mediocre level.
The 2D section was completely unnecessary and didn't add anything to the level whatsoever. There were a few jumps over a slime pit, a checkpoint, and that's it. Speaking of the slime, that’s one other problem with the map, it should have been translucent so that way you could actually see the rising platforms that emerge from it. It took me about 30 seconds to realize that there was actually a way to get to that higher platform in the section following the 2D part, since I couldn’t see the platform when it wasn’t above the slime. Also, like I mentioned earlier, you guys throw in a few ideas in there such as the fans and the gravity switching, but none of them seemed to be executed well enough. If you guys had expanded upon the gravity switching or the fans, then I think they could have been pretty neat gimmicks for a while (especially the gravity bit). The outer space part just before the goal, like the 2D section, felt completely pointless, as it was way too easy and didn’t really seem to add much along with the rest of the level. Overall, the level could have done so much more, but it instead ended up being far too underwhelming for my tastes.

Eggslimer Battle Zone by Boinciel & Prime 2.0

Why even bother posting this as a single player map in a level design contest? It’s literally a cut/paste boss from THZ with spikes around him in a rather boring and uninteresting map. There’s nothing else to say here.

Fire Castle Zone by Profesor Oak

And once again we have a level with the infamous “way-too-big-and-empty” syndrome. Well, aside from the absurd amount of enemies places around it, of course. The small cracks of lava that are randomly placed around the map are pointless since although they clearly serve as a hazard, I could just walk right around all of it. You also seem to have a thing for placing a CRAP-TON of enemies and an unnecessary amount of tumbleweed and other random visual Things that do nothing but annoy the player. There was absolutely nothing this level had to offer other than enemy spam and really easy-to-find “secret” areas in the level.

Gleaming Caverns Zone by 742mph

Not exactly bad, but not good either. While it’s nice that you actually put split paths into the map that adds more replay value, they all pretty much feel the same. Sure, you put in some 2D sections and a Knuckles path, but neither of them were executed very well. I don’t really understand why you made the translucent platforms destructible, as it does nothing but add annoyance to the player the first time you try to jump on one, especially if said player had 0 rings and falls to their death for no good reason, wasting a life. As for the visuals, the “gleaming” diamonds around the level don’t exactly mash well with the dull, greyish/brownish rock texture and floor. Not only that, but the “bright caverns” idea has been pretty overused at this point. But yeah, this level was okay overall.

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention is that there is a blank texture towards the left in the beginning of the level, you should probably fix that.

Neo Canyon Zone by Chrome

Not really much to say about this one. The visuals look fairly nice aside from some unfitting textures such as the sand-colored rocks. There isn’t really anything unique or interesting about this map as it seems to play it safe for the most part, although you most likely designed this with a “first zone” mindset, which is understandable. You should also fix the music, as it doesn’t loop properly. That’s pretty much it.

Thawing Icecap Zone by Scooby Doo

This map suffers from quite a handful of blatantly obvious issues which make me question whether or not you even thoroughly tested this map or not. You can easily find a wall lacking a thok barrier right behind the 1-up monitor in the very beginning of the level, which gives a bad first-impression of the level once you start it. Afterwards, there’s a diagonal spring under water that unexpectedly bounces you right over a platform and straight into a death pit if you don’t control Sonic so that you don’t fall to your death. Why are there lava and flares in an ice-themed level? Why the enemy spam? What the heck was even the point of that room with the ice floor that you could almost easily skip half of by jumping?

Well, I guess this proves that fictional cartoon dogs aren't very good at making maps after all.

Gleaming Caverns: 4/10
Pretty, but shallow. Like a cheerleader. Competently designed but unfun. Your levels seem to follow a very obvious and repetitive formula.

Thawing Icecap: 3/10
Cool music. Cool feeling when I looked below the ice I was standing on and saw previous parts of the level. Everything else was kinda crap. Impressive scope for a beginning level, though.

1) MadGadget = 10/10 > Good Level Design, slightly difficult gameplay, reminds me of ERZ2.
2) NeoCanyon1 = 8/10 > Very nice level design and use of enemies, but it's a bit short.
3) Gleaming Caverns = 6/10 > Nice level design and textures, like the custom enemies, very difficult.
4) Thawing Icecap = 4/10 > The level design is good but there are too many enemies in one area.
5) FireCastle2 = 2/10 > The level is a bit basic and is very confusing at the start also it is very difficult.
6) Very good level design but most areas have no use, you might as well make Eggman fly inside the tunnels with a soc edit.

Neo Canyon:
Packed to the brim with replayability, whether it be through Sonic 3 & Knuckles like pathing, tons of secrets, tons of areas to go to, great enemy placement, and fair difficulty. I really wish the vanilla levels themselves took this level design route. Too bad it had to be rushed into the OLDC, if it were longer it'd be really something. Can't wait to see how it is in it's final version.Gleaming Caverns
Crumbling platforms with NO visual ques are terrible (not even falling, CRUMBLING LIKE BUSTABLE WALLS). Tons of moving platforms are terrible. The slow moving lava spout platforms at the end that crush you on the ceiling and force you to make a leap of faith is terrible. Besides that, it was alright, a lot of monotonous sections where you had to jump on the jolly rancher colored platforms over and over though.

Neo Canyon Zone- Easily the best map in this contest. It really well designed, the aesthetics work well, and it is a lot of fun to play through. Despite its short length it is very replayable.

Glorious Cavern Zone- This map is fair. The texturing looks pretty nice, but in later sections it starts looking less impressive than it does at the start.

Mad Gadget Zone- The level has nice concepts going for it and that is about it. In the 2D section where the platform dips into the pool of slime was pretty neat. The bouncing gimmick and the gravity gimmick were both ideas that could work out better if they were refined and fleshed out. The bouncing gimmick slows down momentum considerably when trying to speed through the level. Trying to progress through the stage with gravity gimmick is a bit of pain when trying to re-position in order to get to the next part. Overall, the map felt empty and could have had more activity.

Fire Castle Zone- The map was really plain. The enemy spam does not help it one bit and there was not anything done in the zone to make it unique. The path that should be taken should have been made more clear, if I did not decide to hit any of the item boxes I probably would have never known that would have opened up a path when playing through this level.

Thawing Icecap Zone- This map has the same issue as the one above albeit being at a lesser extent when it comes to enemies. Most of the diagonal springs if not all of them overshoot you which can be a pain in the neck. Forcing the player to get a Whirlwind Shield to progress takes away from the level. The player should be able to progress without it. A better way to implement the idea would be to put the Whirlwind Shield in an earlier section or make it hidden so that way you could use it as a way to reward the player for keeping it by having it used to reach an alternative route or by having it be used to get better items. Reading the name of this map, Thawing Icecap, I was kind of expecting to see sinking floors and collapsing platforms since some of the ice is suppose to be melting do to the lava.

Eggslimer Battle Zone- I guess it was a nice way to add some more challenge to Egg Slimer, but I was expecting a bit more than just a boss level with Egg Slimer with rotating spikes.

Not quite done with the reviews, but I am definitely going to finish them when I replay a couple of the stages again.

I don't have much to say that hasn't already been said, so my comments will just be small bits of criticism.

Neo Canyon has a nasty case of lazy waterfall syndrome. It's a pet peeve of mine when people use the waterfall top texture for the entire waterfall. It looks so ugly and unnatural.

Eggslimer Battle is an annoying reminder that the rules for some reason don't disallow maps that are just boring boss battles.

I can't tell if Refrigerator is a joke map or not. Either way, it's way too big and empty.

Final Destination is like, totally boring, but at least the map doesn't make me actively hate it. Also, you should have stuck a rail panel somewhere way out in space so you could grab it and screw with people.

Mine Maze has decent visuals but the map is way too big and confusing and there's too many obscure corners where the flag carrier can just hide and stall the game forever.

I played in the same games as Katmint and my comments are basically the same as hers and everyone else's about the maps.
I'm the one who handled the visual side of Mad Gadget, but SRB2DB decided to stop working, explaining the lack of scenery past the turret room.

Wow, compared to the last contest, not much has changed. No offense intended to any of the mappers, but a lot of these maps look like they belong back in the 1.09.4 era. I have to say I'm a bit surprised to see so many levels here without deaf rings and/or complete thok barriers. Seeing as I didn't enter a map myself this time, I guess I can't say too much. Anyway, using the new system of voting, my results are as follows in order from OK to not so okay:

Mad Gadget:
It has some nice gimmicks, but still has some bugs to be worked out. For example, some of the crushers currently move a bit fast for Tails and Knuckles, especially the one that's in 2D mode. Also, the conveyor belt near the end looks a little strange not moving since one end leads to a death pit. It was a good idea with the glass walls for the turret room and the various gravity changing panels, though they could still use some work. These panels are likely confuse those who enter them without much height or speed. Adding a wind current (such as a fan concept) or splitting each one into two unidirectional panels should solve this issue. Other than some minor graphic glitches and lack of alternative paths, this map was actually done quite well, good job!

Overall: 6/10
Graphics: 7/10
Layout: 6/10
Replay Value: 6/10

EggSlimer Battle Zone:
It was a nice proof of concept with the EggSlimer boss itself, but unfortunately it's just that. It might be interesting to see if something similar to this could be done with Lua scripting when 2.1 gets released publicly. If I was just judging Eggman, I would say he and his machine would get a 7/10 overall. Good scripting, I know it took some time getting this to work. It was fun to lure Eggman down the narrow passages and to see how long it would take for him to get stuck. By the way, the tracks are too high to just run across in certain sections and require jumping. It's mostly just the 4 corners that are the issue.

Fire Castle Zone:
It has nice music that seems to to match the theme of the level quite well. Unfortunately, there are way too many clustered enemies throughout the level and some of the texturing seems rushed. Generally it's bad practice to have to rely on power-ups for safe progression. There seems to be a huge overuse of black (~Pit) textures, for example the bars letting in light are black on both sides while it's both black/dark inside and light outside. Another issue I have with this level is that there are too many fire jets! The map would have to be significantly larger to justify having this many, especially for net-games. Some of the lava pits are a bit deep to escape without an element shield, even for tails.

Overall: 4/10
Graphics: 5/10
Layout: 4/10
Replay Value: 4/10

Gleaming Caverns Zone:
It was of good quality considering the amount of content, but it seemed some areas were quite a bit more accident prone than need to be. To be blunt, this map was a bit boring, although the 2D sections and alternate path for Knuckles were great additions. There was some great gimmicks and the scripting was good, it was a bit repetitive to keep my interest. I didn't really like how so many of the enemies had to be spindashed to be defeated. This concept is okay sometimes, but it might have been overused here. Better placement of enemies and a few layout changes would improve this map greatly. Also, the last checkpoint got me lost for minute on my first run with Tails as I wasn't expecting the level to end so close to there. I can see your reasoning, but it's probably not needed.

Overall: 7/10
Graphics: 8/10
Layout: 6/10
Replay Value: 7/10

Neo Canyon Zone:
It's not too bad for a demo, but I think it would have done better if it was entered into the next contest instead. The biggest issues with this map are the excessive number Robothoods and the high number of glitches as shown below. It's just too blocky for my taste, I don't like how Sonic has little to no access to the upper sections. There's nothing in this level that's meant specifically for Sonic as there is for Tails and Knuckles.

Loading levels such as this with older computers is a bad idea. It might be worth limiting the number of RobotHoods in each sector to a few less. Using more modern machines, this is only a small issue on slow networks.It looks strange to see so many arrows flying around. Being unplayable on my Wii due to it's size and not bad map design actually increased my rating for it slightly. It looked good in Doom Builder too, but it had a lot of errors and missing textures. I guess this understandable as it's just a demo. It was quite fun playing in coop mode.

Look out for the arrows Aero!
RobotHoods causing lag (and using Chaos Control) on my Wii.

Aero being Aero...
Might want to fix this, a high jump down into this could leave Sonic stuck, like Tails sort of was here. Flying or climbing are the only way out here.

...and finally this (ignore the ring count, I just used "setrings").
Where's Waldo (I mean Aero)?

Thawing Icecap:
Some things that could be done to improve this map are using deaf rings, fixing/implementing correct thok barriers, reducing the excessive number of enemies, increasing friction, giving the player some sign of direction (such as a more obvious goal), and reduce the number of fire jets (it lags bad). This level was hard to test as my computer kept running low on CPU every time the fire started. I didn't even bother testing this on my Wii as my i3 laptop could barely handle all the fire jets, this decreased my rating for the level as levels aren't suppose to lag like this (bad design). I was unable to as Sonic as there were a lot of cheap deaths waiting on ever turn. Even the springs were deadly. I'm not sure if it was bad math on the spring placement or a just a lack of testing, but they should've been placed better. Remember, springs aren't the enemy. Also, the evergreen trees are way out of perspective and the only real reward for climbing one is a 1 up. Maybe you should consider putting elevators in the tree trunks or doing something that makes it worth it to climb them.

Overall: 4/10
Graphics: 3/10
Layout: 2/10
Replay Value: 5/10

Multiplayer (CTF)

Spoiler:

MULTIPLAYER (CTF) MAP REVIEWS

Mine Maze Zone:
Great job with the tracks, and sector placement. I suggest more detail with what I assume are mine carts and fixing the pits that are inconsistent. Some pits result in instant death while others don't do anything. I like how this level is more enclosed than the average CTF levels for a change.

There's not much I could suggest that could be done to improve this map other than maybe a few minor layout changes regarding heights. It would be so neat if polyobjects weren't so buggy, then you might be able to add movable floor activated mine carts to this level using waypoints. By buggy, I'm not referring to rendering issues in vanilla SRB2, but rather the glitch that currently occurs when pushing against a moving polyobject when it's trying to stop (mine cart would fall apart).

OVERALL: 7/10
Graphics: 8/10
Layout: 7/10

Final Destination Zone:
This map really needs gravity reduction and some more polish. There's not much to say here other than it's quite flat and needs better item placement. To me, it seems quite generic in its current state. By the way, standing on your home platform is a bad idea here when the flag is on the base, especially during a net game or with a low-end computer. You should take a look at fixing this as this much beeping isn't normal.

OVERALL: 5/10
Graphics: 6/10
Layout: 3/10

Mount Revolvius Zone:
Maybe if in a match contest with Angel Lava Zone, it might not have been rated last in its category. It was an interesting idea, but I would suggest giving the blue team some rings, making the mountain easier to climb (if you could call it that), placing the red teams base inside/underneath the mountain, and placing the teleporter about halfway down. Also, to be fair, I would suggest making another teleporter of the same style for the red team on the other side.

I really abused the setup of the map by just hiding around the blue base, blasting my way through while picking up the flag and tossing it off the edge to the red base. Most of the times I got quite close to getting the flag right to my (the red) home base, and someone down there just picked it up for the point. It was nearly impossible for the blue team to defend their base without rings. With more than two players, jumping was nearly suicide for anyone on blue as it was almost always a one hit kill before any of them even reached the ground.

With one player, the opposite happens and blue team always wins in the longterm due to a lack of offense ability from the red team. In it's current state, this stage should have probably also had a force skin setting so everyone would be Tails since Sonic can't scale the mountain and Knuckles would be shot before ever reaching the top (that is, if blue ever had any rings). Maybe it should have been named "King of the Cliffside", it definitely has a "King of the Mountain" type game-play.

OVERALL: 2/10
Graphics: 2/10
Layout: 2/10

Multiplayer (Match)

Spoiler:

Multiplayer (Match) Map Reviews

Volcano Valley Zone:
With the exception of one of the skies being twice that of elsewhere and Knuckles being able to climb up a wall to hide there, there's nothing that's bad about this map. It's actually done quite well. You probably should consider making the upper sections easier for Sonic to reach as it would only take a snipper watching certain key platforms to prevent Sonic from even reaching the upper levels as there is usually just one way to reach it in each area. I like how it's not possible to pass through the floor where the lava-falls are.

OVERALL: 7/10
Graphics: 7/10
Layout: 7/10

Match Meadow Zone:
This is quite a bit better than the default Meadow Jade Match, but suffers from the same issues. The biggest issue for me is that anyone using Knuckles can climb higher on the wall than even what tails can fly in some areas (therefore also out of aiming range for non OpenGL users who can't look straight up as Sonic). Sonic stands little chance against Knuckles as Knuckles could just glide and fire from above. This concept really works great (and annoys the victims) when there is a lot players in a cramped area and someone with Knuckles has grenades falling while gliding. By the way, I'm not sure if this is one of shortcomings of SRB2 or just a mapping error, but I found some grass in the sky.

I wonder if this is solid?
OVERALL: 6/10
Graphics: 7/10
Layout: 6/10

Refrigerator Zone:
Now this is one refrigerator that's not so cool. I don't understand naming; is this suppose to be an inside joke, an acronym, or a reference to something? It's a shame so much work had to go into this, it's just not meant to be a multiplayer map in it's current state (it's just too big). As others have mentioned already, there is currently an issue with the SRB2 collision detection regarding fast moving solid platforms. Spin-dashing can lead to death if done on a fast moving platform. The platforms with the fire (torch stands I guess) should also be completely solid from the bottom too and also have thicker platform to prevent accidental damage.

Also, the sand pits all should result in damage/death before reaching the bottom. Your not consistent with this and besides, weird things will happen when passing through sand as in the screenshot below, though the sand offers perfect protection to those without a shield. In the screenshot, I wasn't trying to hide and/or make glass, but rather just show how to make fire and set grenades (I mean land mines) in the sand. I'm sure in a normal competitive match others would get suspicious if they seen a shield with no one in it or heard beeping coming from the sand.

This just makes a temporary resting point for the quite snippers who have played the map previously.

OVERALL: 7/10
Graphics: 7/10
Layout: 6/10

Generic Canyon Zone:
Other than the fact that Sonic can't get to some of the higher platforms, it's actually not that bad. As a suggestion, I think adding some tumbleweed might make for some good decoration, just don't go overboard. With some modifications, this would be a great level to mix something like exploding tumbleweed with (I think someone already did a proof of concept SOC for this though). As I mentioned before with the sand in Refrigerator Zone, the grey liquid stuff here needs to do damage or take a life and not allow for what is shown below.

The air down here is getting a little stale.Strange why the others aren't showing up here in my screenshot...

OVERALL: 5/10
Graphics: 5/10
Layout: 4/10

Angel Lava Zone:
Wow, what can say that hasn't been already said? It's not too bad for a first map, but it's not ready for judging yet. It's generally bad practice to make hazards (such as lava) that doesn't hurt players or to place death sector randomly in the middle of a map like this. I like how the player can move from platform to platform without jumping, but that's about it. At least you have thok barriers and there is little wrong with the sectors that are there, just next time spend more time on the design.

Also, like some others here, rings are suppose to be deaf. In other words, they are normally suppose to float 32 units above their floor (at least) and not spin on the floor like tops. Of coarse, there are exceptions to this and during the next contest I plan on demonstrating a few examples of this. Don't get discourage, map building using this ancient engine is a challenge that will take time and people shouldn't be giving any non joke maps here zero unless they don't load or always result in instant death. Anything that loads shows effort!

OVERALL: 1/10
Graphics: 1/10
Layout: 1/10

Attached Thumbnails

__________________
If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing.

Last edited by ŠeltaResero; 02-14-2013 at 04:20 AM.
Reason: Gadget not Gear

I excluded one vote, which was Eva's, because she didn't include her own map in the vote. Gladly, there were no ties (although two were narrowly avoided), so less work for me. Also, quite a few people apparently didn't read the opening post, where it clearly and in bold states that you should separate your vote from your comments. This really does make it a lot easier for whoever tallies the vote. Anyway, congratulations to Chrome, Sryder13, Spherallic and CoatRack.